Complications
by ainie
Summary: My third Suzannah story, couldn't keep away from her completely, but she's not the main focus. The main focus is one of the big spoilers for S7, The Richard one.
1. Gilmore's Anatomy

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**OK, so what wasn't planned to happen, happened; I wrote another Suzannah-story. I kept getting PMs and reviews telling me to do so, and eventuallly I got tempted to. According to the timeframe, Suzannah should be about 2 years old (this is S7) but she's obviously older than that (about 5 or 6, maybe.). Oh well, not even the GG-creators are good with timeframes.**

**This story is spoilerish, so don't read it if you want to stay spoilerfree.**

**Dedicated to Inca, my wonderful beta (VoyICJ) :)**

**Enjoy!**

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_Gilmore's Anatomy_

"_He's not going to die, is he? Please, Lorelai, please say he's not going to die!"_

Lorelai looked down on her sister who was sitting on her lap and was looking up to her with big, brown, doe-like eyes. Lorelai wished it was her, who could turn to someone for comfort, she wished she could be the one everyone wanted to spare from the terrible realities life has to offer. Lorelai hated having to be the strong one, although she fulfilled her role dutifully.

"_No, Suzy, he's not going to die. The doctors are going to make him better, it's just going to take some time," _she heard the words coming out of her mouth, and she desperately wanted to believe them.

Of course she had been scared when they told her and Rory about the disease, something called a primary pulmonary hypertension. She remembered the day they told her as one of the worst Friday night dinners in history, which had to mean that it had been a big deal. Her mother's serious face, Rory's desperate begging for details, her father's refusing to talk about it at all... But although she had been scared, she would never have imagened sitting here in a hospital corridor, only about a month later. Although it had crossed her mind that this disease could eventually kill her father, she would never have imagined sitting here, worrying for his life, so soon.

Her sister's voice forced her to come out of her thoughts.

"_If the doctors are going to make him better, why is Mum crying?" _she asked. _"Mum is tired, you know..."_ Lorelai began. _"That's why she is crying so much. Once Dad is better she'll stop."_

Lorelai couldn't remember ever having seen her mother falling apart like this before. Richard had told her once that her mother had had a break-down after Lorelai had run away from home, but she had never been able to grasp that, she hadn't really been able to picture it. But ever since the night before, when her parents' maid called her to tell her about the sudden deterioration in her father's state, ever since she came to the hospital and found her mother and her sister in the corridor she was sitting in now, she had seen it with her own eyes. Her mother was not herself, she had turned into a desperate and dire woman that Lorelai couldn't remember ever having seen before, not to that degree. She was yelling at the nurses, convinced that they were all holding back information from her. In-between her worst outbreaks she'd cry bitterly, making Lorelai feel horrible for having told her to pull herself together earlier. Then after a while she'd get angry again. As she only got worse as the hours of the night passed by, the staff had decided to offer her some sedatives and a room where she could rest. At first she refused to do so, fearing that she would miss getting information about Richard's state, but eventually Lorelai managed to convince her to take a few pills, conditioned that she would wake her up if anything happened.

Lorelai herself had spent the last half of the night sitting on the same chair, with Suzannah on her lap and Rory in the seat next to them.

Lorelai looked up and saw Rory walking down the corridor with two cups of coffee. She handed one to Lorelai and sat down next to her again. Suzannah in the meantime seemed to be satisfied with the answers she had been given. She rested her head against Lorelai's neck and dozed off. The little girl was in her long, white nightgown, a mantle and boots. Emily hadn't had the time to dress her before they had left.

"_So, have they said anything yet?" _Rory asked. _"About Grandpa, I mean?"_

Lorelai shook her head while taking a sip of coffee. _"Nah. I stopped a nurse about ten minutes ago, she said the same thing they've been saying all night; they're still running tests."_

Rory lay back in her chair and sighed. _"You'd think they would have had the time to test him for just about anything by now. We've been here like...forever." _Lorelai grumbled something to assent. _"Oh by the way," _Rory continued_. "Dad texted me just now. He called our house and Babette was there to feed Paul Anka so she told him where we were." _Rory had to yawn before she continued_. "He said that if we need him here, he doesn't have to go with his mother and GG to that great-aunt of his."_ She studied her mother's face, looking for clues as to how Lorelai felt about this. _"Do you want him to stay, Mum?I mean, you two are, like, an item now..." _

"_It's up to you, babe." _Lorelai brushed some hair away from her sister's forhead. _"I think...Chris and I are past the stage where he can be...you know...just my friend, but we're not quite at the point where he can be there for me as a boyfriend," _she sighed_. "But he's "dad" to you all the time. That's never going to change," _she smiled tiredly at her daughter. Rory didn't smile back. _"I'm OK with him going," _was her quick and short reply._ "Fine. I'm sure we'll be out of here soon anyway," _Lorelai said in a sleepy voice. Then they sat there without speaking for a little while.

"_Well, I guess I should go and see how grandma's doing..." _Rory decided and got ready to get up, when a doctor in a long, white coat came out of a door and headed right towards them.

"_You're Richard Gilmore's daughter, right?"_ she asked Lorelai. _"That depends on what he's been up to this time," _Lorelai said dryly. One look at Rory was enough for her to realize that the joke wasn't well-recieved, so she pulled herself together and took on the part of a responsible adult.

"_Rory, why don't you take Suzy with you and get her something to drink." _She said as she handed the girl over to her daugther. Rory nodded, took drowsy Suzannah by the hand, and brushed her available hand over Lorelai's back before she turned away and left.

"_So..."_ Lorelai got up to face the doctor..._"On, you know, on " Grey's Anatomy" or "House" and stuff like that, this is the part where they play that really scary music and then they sort of fade out and I'll either start crying or throw myself around your neck..." _she said in a very hasty and insecure voice. The doctor gave her a quick smile before she became serious again.

"_Ms. Gilmore_, _I'm sorry to tell you that your father has a bronchogenic carcinoma." _Lorelai looked confused. _"And now I guess my line as the naive relative is "Can you repeat that in English, please?" _The doctor nodded before she answered. _"A tumor has appeared in one of his lungs...To put it esaily, it means that he has lung cancer."_

Lorelai sank back into the chair. _"Lung cancer?" she asked in a whispery voice. Then she looked back up to the doctor's face. "Lung cancer?!?" _she repeated, louder_. "But I thought you said he had the primary...something-something? The thing he could live with if he took tablets?" "__Primary pulmonary hypertension," _the doctor nodded_, "Yes, that was what we diagnosed at first. The symptoms are very much the same..." "Well if they're the same, then why do you assume that he has the first thing, huh?" _Lorelai cut her off_. "Wouldn't it have been better to check if it was cancer first?!" _Her voice was shrill at this point, and she had to take a deep breath.The doctor squatted in front of her. _"I'm sorry to be the one to give you this bad news, Ms. Gilmore," _she said in a gentle voice, and Lorelai understood that she was shooting the messenger. She thought to herself that snapping at the doctor would be the sort of thing her mother would have been likely to do, and she decided to rise above that, even though she felt angry enough to bite the doctor' head of. She forced on a sad little smile. _"I'm sorry, here I am yelling at you, and you're only doing your job..." _she said and wiped her hands across her face. _"So, what happens now, how are you going to treat him? I mean, there's stuff you can do, right?" _

"_Unfortunately, the tumor has spread already. We have to do a __pneumonectomy__." "I've already used my "In English, please"-line," _Lorelai reminded her. "_I'm sorry. It means that we have to remove one of his lungs. Completely."_ The doctor explained. _"You mean, like, give him a new one?" _Lorelai hoped she wouldn't have to get into a dilemma about donating one of her organs. _"No, he can manage with one lung. If he survives the operation, he has a 70 percent chance of surviving the next five years." _

"_If he survives?" Lorelai sent the doctor an interrogative look. She could see that this question was hard to answer. "Yes. At your father's age, the chance of surviving a surgery like this one is about 50/50...and that's optimistic." _The doctor got back up before she continued. _"We've scheduled a surgery on Monday at 1.00 PM."_

Lorelai knew that it would have been acceptable, if not mandatory, for a daughter to react when she was presented to this kind of news, but she didn't start crying right away. Sure, she was completely worn-out by what she had just heard and just wanted to cry like a baby, but she felt that if she allowed the staff to comfort her and take care of her, it would be a little hypocritical given how her relationship to her father probably wasn't as good as they would think. So instead of bursting into tears, she quietly thanked the doctor for the information, and took on the responsibility of filling the rest of the family in.

When the doctor left her to herself a few minutes later, Lorelai covered her face with her hands and tried to gather her thoughts. Okay...so there was a 50 percent chance that her father would die in three days. 50 percent... In three days. 50/50, that meant that there was just as big a chance of him dying as of him surviving. Dying. Death. In three days.

"_Are you kidding me?!?!" _she exclaimed out loud. She wasn't sure who she was speaking to. It just felt good to get it out.

Only a few minutes later Rory came back with a fast asleep Suzannah hanging over her shoulder. After having put the child down in one of the chairs, she sat down next to her mother to get to know what the doctor had said. Lorelai explained, as gently as she could, but without hiding anything, what she had been told.

Rory didn't have any second thoughts about crying. When her mother mentioned the word "cancer", the first tear slided down her cheek, and when she heard about the risky operation, she buried her face in Lorelai's lap and wept with frustration. Lorelai also allowed herself to cry now, now that only Rory could hear her.

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**Reviews are apprechiated, unless they are TOO harsh. But constructive critisism I'll try to handle. _(And if you're an Emily-fan like me and want to see more of her, look forward to the next chapter:) .)_**


	2. When Suzannah Cries

**When Suzannah Cries**

It was Suzannah who woke the two of them up a few hours later. She had never been the one to stay asleep throughout a whole night. Both Lorelai and Rory felt more tired than they had before falling asleep. Sleeping while sitting up on a hard chair didn't provide much energy. Rory offered to give Emily the new information on Richard's new diagnosis, and although Lorelai was very much tempted to take that offer, she sent her home to get Suzannah into a real bed. After she had gone to the car with them, she went to the reception and found out which room Emily had spent the night in.

She took a deep breath to prepare herself before she opened the door and went inside, where she found her mother folding up the quilt. Emily turned when she heard the door open.

"_Oh, it's you. Coming to check how long those tabletts could keep me unconscious, are you?" _she asked sarcasticly, and went back to folding. _"I can't believe you allowed those nurses to sedate me last night. And to put me down in here, these linens are of terrible quality! I am very disappointed in you, Lorelai."_

"_Never heard that one before..." _Lorelai mumbled to herself. Louder she said: _"I didn't have much choice, you know. You were acting like..." "Ah well, enough about that!" _Emily cut her off. _"How's your father, have they let you see him yet?" "Not yet..." _Lorelai sat down on a chair in a corner of the room. _"I talked to a doctor a few hours ago, she said they'd take him to a room around noon." _

Emily nodded, placed the evenly folded quilt back on the bed and then turned to face Lorelai. _"And where's Suzannah?" _

"_I think I accidently gave her up for organ donations...She went home with Rory, Mum!" _Lorelai quickly gave up joking when she saw the look on her mother's face. _"Why did you bring her anyway? Couldn't you just have let her stay at home with the maid?" she continued. _

Emily glared at her, as if she'd never heard such a stupid suggestion. _"The day I leave my Suzannah alone with that Consuela-woman for even five minutes, you can call me an idiot!" _She declared without explaining further. Then she sat down on the bed and averted her eyes, as if she didn't really want to know the answer to her next question.

"_Have they found out anything new about your father's condition yet?" _she asked, in an almost whispery voice.

"_Well, yeah. That's why I came to see you, Mum..." _Lorelai crossed her legs and folded her hands around the upper knee before she continued. _"It's...it's not that thing they thought it was. It's worse than that." _She took a deep breath and made sure she had eyecontact with her mother before she said what had to be said. _"He's got cancer, Mum. Lung cancer. One of his lungs has to be removed. They're operating on Monday. And they don't know if he'll make it through the operation."_ She couldn't get herself to mention the odds. _"You should talk to one of the doctors...they can explain it way better..."_

The explosion Lorelai had been waiting for didn't occur. The night before, Emily had blamed the doctors for not doing enough, Lorelai for not nagging enough at them, even Richard, for not having gone to see a doctor sooner. But now she was just sitting there, staring down on the tips of her shoes. She bit her lip for a second or two before mumbling something that Lorelai had to ask her to repeat.

"_I asked: Have you talked to him?" _Emily asked, louder and sharper. Lorelai shook her head. _"No, Mum,I just told you. The doctor I spoke to said they'd be taking him to a room on this floor around noon when they're done with some kind of scanning, we can see him then..." _She quickly checked her watch_. "That's still a few hours away. I'm going home to take a shower." _She got up and streched her arms above her head with a yawn. _"So...should I drive you home first or do you want to stay?" _

"_Don't be silly, Lorelai, of course I will stay. And I expect you to be back here as soon as possible."_

"_ASAP, Mum," _Lorelai sighed as she left.

The second the door had closed behind Lorelai, Emily's chin started shaking. She clenched her fingers so hard that her nails made marks in her palms, before she grabbed the perfectly folded quilt and threw in on the floor, with all the energy she was able to gather up. Then she buried her face in her hands, and cried.

When Lorelai got home, she found Rory asleep on the couch, and when she peeked into Rory's room, she saw that Paul Anka had climbed into bed with Suzannah. "Ah well, I'll leave him there," she thought to herself. Whatever could make the little girl feel safer in a scary situation like that was grately appreciated.

She want back into the living room to check her phone messages. As soon as she clicked the button, Chris' voice came from the speaker, and she turned it down so it wouldn't wake Rory.

"Hey Lor, it's me... Just thought I'd let you know that we've arrived now...Everything's fine, GG got a little crappy during the long car ride, but now she's sleeping. Uhm..what else..oh yeah I'll see if I can find a store that sells good wine here and bring you some. I'll call you later. Oh, and Rory told my your dad is ill, send him my best wishes. Bye." 

Lorelai wrinkled her forhead as she went back into the kitchen to get a glass of water. _"Will do, Chris, if he stays alive long enough to listen to me." _When she turned off the sink she heard that the machine was playing another message.

"Hey. It's Luke...Just wanted to say that Babette told me you had to go to the hospital with your father last night. Yeah...hospitals suck. I don't really know why I called, I guess I just...I just want you to know that I'm here, OK? So...just let me know if there's anything I can help you with. I'll see ya."

When Richard was wheeled into a room later that morning, Emily was already there, waiting impatiently for him.

"_Finally, there you are! I haven't seen you all night, you'd think this place was a concentration camp, not a hospital," _she said as she shot a glare at the nurse, who wheeled the bed, a glare that made her hurry out of the room. Richard smiled at her. _"They're only doing their job, Emily..." _he reminded her. _"Yes, well, I only wish they would do it faster. I swear, I've seen snails move faster than some of these nurses," _Emily said as she sat down on the bedside. She quickly leaned over him to let him kiss her cheek. _"Where are the girls?" _Richard asked while taking her hand in his and rubbing it. _"Suzannah went to Lorelai's house with Rory some time before I got up. And Lorelai went home a few hours ago. She promised they'd be back soon, though," _she explained, while she was trying not to stare at the tubes that were going into the veins on his hands._"Good," _Richard declared in a tired voice. They sat together in silence for a little while.

"_Can I get you something?" _Emily asked_. "A newspaper or something else to read?"_ _"Thanks, Emily, but I don't think I'll be able to concentrate on anything like that right now. I'm so tired...It's like my mind is worn-out,"_ Richard answered while trying to smother a yawn. _"Oh yes, you should probably rest before your operation_..." Emily nodded, and on that note she had to wipe her hand across her face._ "Richard...I'm scared_!" she admitted in a thin voice. _"Oh, Emily, don't be!"_ he tried to comfort her, but she just got more upset. _"Emily, please don't cry!" _he tried again. _"I promise you, I will do everything I can to regain my health after that operation." _

"_You'd better..." _Emily said in the same thin voice as she lay down next to him._ "You can't leave me alone. That time when we were seperated I could hardly manage without you, even though you were living next-door...," _she rested her head on his shoulder as she continued. _"And now we have Suzannah and everything...No, you simply can't leave us alone!" _she concluded. As she kept on crying softly Richard wasn't sure what to say, except for _"Don't worry...it's all going to work out. It's all going to be allright."_

Lorelai and Rory decided to ride in seperate cars when they went back to the hospital, so that Rory could go straight to school afterwards. Lorelai had her sister in her car, sitting in the back seat wearing one of Lorelai's tightest tops over a pair of pants she had forgotten under Rory's bed some time in the past.

" _That was Mum on the phone, she says Dad's looking forward to see you," _Lorelai said as she closed her cell phone and put it in the seat next to her. But Suzannah had other worries at the moment.

"_Mum is going to go bananas when she sees me in this..." _she predicted. _"I know, it's going to be hillarious!" _Lorelai claimed. _"Hey, what was I supposed to do, let you walk around naked?"_

They were driving past Weston's when Lorelai suddenly stopped the car. _"I'm just going to get some coffee, do you want anything?" _she asked. _"I'll let you eat something with jam, in a very unnatural color, the kind that Mum doesn't allow." "Why don't you buy coffee at Luke's diner anymore?"_ Suzannah wondered. _"Well, you know I told you that Luke and I aren't boyfriend and girlfriend anymore? That's why," _Lorelai tried to explain as she unbuckled her seatbelt. _"Yeah, 'cause you're with Chris now. Rory's dad. I know," _Suzannah said in an indifferent tone. _"I think it's sad that you're not Luke's girlfriend anymore. __I liked Luke." "Yeah, I know you did, cupcake. He liked you too," _Lorelai assured her. _"Sooo...how about a donut?"_

When Lorelai and Suzannah entered Richard's room a little later, they found Rory there, reading out loud from the newspaper while Richard and Emily were listening. Suzannah ran over and crawled into her father's bed instantly, while Lorelai went to sit with Rory.

"_Oh, I've missed you, princess!" _Richard whispered into his youngest daugther's hair_. "I was worried about you, Dad," _Suzannah mumbled. Then she started studying her father's face. _"At least now you don't look like Nemo's dad when he's not in the ocean, anymore." _

"_Well, that's a relief," _Richard chuckled. Before he was able to finish his sentence, Emily had gotten up and pulled Suzannah back out of the bed. _"Goodness, Suzannah, what are you wearing?!?" _she asked in a way that made it clear that she wasn't happy with her daughter's new style, "_You look like a...a...I don't know what!"_

"_It was her idea!" _Suzannah quickly explained while pointing at her older sister.

"_Tattletale!" _Lorelai complained. Emily was about to respond when Suzannah started pulling on her sleve. _"Mum, please don't freak?" _she begged. _"Yeah, Mummy, please don't be mad?" _Lorelai started pouting and asked in her most childish voice.

For a second, Emily looked as if she was going to scold Lorelai, but then she calmed down. _"Alright,"_ she agreed. _"Stop doing that with your lip, Lorelai, or you'll remain that way."_

When they all had managed to stay together in the same room for about half an hour, without getting into any major discussions and without mentioning the word "death" in front of Suzannah, Rory decided it would be best to stop while things were going so well, so she suggested that she and Lorelai would take off, but Richard protested. _"Rory, why don't you and your grandmother take Suzannah with you out to the hallway for a little while. I would like a quick word with your mother." _Lorelai had been sitting on the window sill flipping through a magazine she had found there, but now she got up in a hurry. _"With me?" _she asked. Richard simply nodded as Emily brought Suzannah and a sligthly confused Rory out of the room.

Lorelai tiptoed over to the bed and sat down on the chair next to it. _"You look tired, Lorelai," _Richard began. _"Thanks a lot, Dad..." _Lorelai mumbled to herself. Her father ignored her comment. _"Last night was terrible, wasn't it?_" he continued. _"Yeah..." _Lorelai agreed. _"Lucky you, you were ill, so you got away from it all," _she joked._ "While I had to take care of Mum who was...you know...hysterical. And then when she finally went to sleep I still had Suzy, and she was so scared that she wouldn't close her eyes. I had to sing that song with her name in it over and over to calm her down..._

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When Suzannah cries  
She cries a rainstorm  
She cries a river  
She cries a hole in the ground  
She cries for love  
She cries a sad song  
She cries a shiver  
Sometimes she cries for me too

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Lorelai had to yawn for the 50th time that day before she continued. _"But then I reached Rory on the phone and she came over...it worked out."_

"_In fact, Lorelai, it was your sister I wanted to talk to you about," _Richard explained, in the new, quiet, hissy voice of his._ "Lorelai, if I don't survive this surgery..." "Don't say that , Dad!" _Lorelai interrupted, mainly because it felt like her duty to do so. _"Yes, Lorelai, we have to talk about it. You know as well as I do that my life might be over soon, and I think the worst thing we can do at the moment is not to think of this possibility." _

Lorelai nodded._"Alright, you were saying?"_

"_Lorelai, if I don't make it through this surgery, then your sister will be in a much more vulnerable situation than at the moment. True, your mother will still be around, but who knows how long that will last. As late as yesterday, I had good hopes of remaining healthy for years to come. Today, I'm lying here." _He looked up at his daugther before he continued. _"If I die from this cancer, I need to know that you will be there. For you sister, and for your mother. Can you promise me that, Lorelai?" _

"_Of course, Dad, what do you think?" _Lorelai began, but Richard cut her off._ "I don't mean coming to dinner once a week or having Suzannah over now and then, I mean that you have to commit, do you understand? I mean that you can't let future conflicts or discussions between you and your mother keep you from them, you have to show your sister that you are there for her." _Richard had to take a break to regain control of his breath.

"Lorelai, you know I would be lying if I said that I've always agreed with the choices you've made in your life. Nevertheless I think that you have grown to become a strong and independent person. You have a good job, you are a good mother, and now it finally seems like you've come to your senses with your choice of gentlemen-friends, as well." "Wow, all the drugs they've been giving you must have gotten to your brain now, huh? " Lorelai mumbled shyly.

"_You are going to manage, you don't need anyone to protect you and look after you, but your sister still does..If anything should happen to your mother before Suzannah is old enough to take care of herself, unlike you, then she is going to need for you to be there. That little girl never asked to be born at the time that she did, to have parents who have already been grandparents for decades. It's not her fault that she might become an orphan..."_

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Now I slip the night around her  
And I hope she'll be okay  
I just pray someone will find her  
And guide her along her way  
'Cause I'm leaving on the 1. am  
Soon I'm out of sight  
But she'll always be my baby  
Though I'm leaving tonight

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"Dad, don't be so pessimistic, please," Lorelai begged. "There's a good chance you'll be fine. And Mum's always healthy, sometimes I get a feeling she'll outlive me."

"_Lorelai..." _Richard looked at his daughter in a strict manner. He didn't have to say anything else.

"OK, I promise. I promise I'll be there. You can count on me."

"_Good," Richard nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling extremely tired, I think I need to get some sleep."_

"_Sure."_ Lorelai grabbed her coat from a chair and went to look for Rory. As she walked out of the door, she heard her father's ghost-like voice.

"I'm proud of you, Lorelai."

"_Thanks, Dad." _She whispered as she closed the door behind her.

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Every night I hear her  
Talking in her sleep  
She says "You know I'll always be there..."  
And I feel like such a creep  
Please take back the love she gave to me  
And in time her grief may pass  
Just tell her that I loved her  
Now it's all she has -

When Suzannah cries...


	3. Proudness, phonecalls and bitter tears

_**Finally here's a new chapter. I'm glad you all seemed to like the last one, allthough some of you should keep in mind that I as a fan am about 85 percent Emily-fan and 15 percent LL-fan so there's going to be a tiny little bit of them too. But not much. Here comes a long chapter, enjoy! (Thanks to lilienprinzessin for proofreading, those who haven't read the beginning of her latest story, should do so.)**_

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_Proudness, phonecalls and bitter tears_

"_Five times, I tell you! Five times, in a lifetime!" _Lorelai told Rory, when they were having dinner in the hospital cafeteria a little later. Emily had taken Suzannah home to "put her in some decent clothes", so it was just the two of them . They were both in a good mood and it felt just good to have a nice time together and to take a break from the sadness and fear they had been caught in since the previous night .

"He only told you that he's been proud of you five times? How can you be so sure of that?" Rory asked while digging through her lasagne with a fork, hoping to find some meat. Lorelai sent her an indignant look.  
"Because I've been counting, that's why. Look, the first time, I was 10. I'd been sent to detention four days in one week, for pulling Maggie Wilkinson's hair. Then on Friday, Maggie Wilkinson was ill or something, I don't know, she didn't show up at school, so there was no way I could have pulled her hair, even if I wanted to. That Friday I came home right after school had finished, and then, Dad told me he was proud of me!" 

_"What a role-model you are..." _Rory sighed. Lorelai smiled at her and took a bite of the fries she had in front of her before she continued.

"_The second time, I was 15. It was during the worst fighting period I ever had with my mother."_

"_You've been worse than now?" Rory asked, surprised. _

"_Well, it was the worst until then, anyway. I was in my puberty and full of hormones and teenage rage and all that jazz, and my mother was...well she was my mother," _Lorelai giggled like a little girl, ecstatic to hang with her best friend again. _"And one day, I think it was a Sunday, we were fighting from the moment we got up! You should have heard us, we were snapping at each other like wolfs all day, non-stop, and Dad tried to get us to stop. He kept telling Mum to be the mature one, to ignore me and stuff like that, but it didn't help. So, around 6 or 7 in the evening, when my throat was all sore from screaming and I had run out of accusations, I acted like the mature one insteadI ignored her and went to bed. And just before I went to sleep that night, Dad came up to my room, probably thinking I was asleep already. He was just standing by the door, whispering "I'm proud of you." _

"So, when was the third time?" Rory wondered. "That was after you came into the picture," Lorelai explained. "It was Christmas, the year you had turned three, and you had just gotten the hang of reading. So you read out loud the label on? the red wine bottle that was on the table, and your grandpa told you he was proud of you. Then you, being the goodie-goodie you've always been, told him that I was the one who had taught you, so he had to say that he was proud of me, too. And he did, to please you."

Rory started counting, using her fingers. _"OK, so that's one time when you didn't really deserve it, one time when he thought you couldn't hear him, and then one time because I forced him..." _She sent her mother a sly smile. _"Are you sure that last one counts?"_

"_Of course it counts!" _Lorelai claimed._ "If I count that one in, then I have five! That's all the fingers of one hand, baby!" _

"_OK, and the final two?" _Rory wondered.

"Now there's a time gap. The fourth time was about two years ago, or something like that. One of Dad's clients had read about me in that magazine..."

"...The one where you said a lot of mean stuff about Grandma?" Rory interrupted.

"Yeah, that's the one," Lorelai continued in an indifferent tone. "Anyway, these people apparently told him I was an up-and-comer, which has got to be a good thing, because that was the fourth time he said it."

"_And the last time was like half an hour ago," _Rory concluded.

"_Yeah_..." Lorelai confirmed and took a sip of her glass.

"_Hey, it's nice that he's satisfied with your choice of "gentlemen-friends", huh? _Rory giggled.

Lorelai started to stir her straw around in the glass, as she got a more serious look on her face. _"Yeah, I guess..." _she nodded.

Spending most of the weekend at the hospital, waiting for a potential life-saving operation, can make anyone a little edgy. Saturday, everyone was a little more nervous and tense than they had been the day before.

Emily got more demanding than ususal. Nothing in Richard's room was good enough. She demanded new chairs, new sheets, new vases for the flowers... By the end of the day, all of the nurses, doctors, even cleaners in the compartment were afraid of her, and avoided her, when they saw her in the corridors.

Lorelai became very absent-minded. She kept forgetting stuff like keys, her cell phone, her jacket, her purse and a lot of other stuff , something that annoyed Emily immensely.

Rory got jumpy?. Even the slightest noise behind her made her turn around and scream as if she was being attacked. If someone brushed her while passing her in the cafeteria line or outside the toilet, she would jerk and start hyperventilating.

Suzannah stopped talking. No one could get a word out of her all day long. Nothing helped, neither Emily's begging and nagging that, as she got more desperate towards the end of the day, turned into yelling, nor Lorelai's attempt to bribe her with candy. Not until Richard whispered into her ear that he missed her voice very much did she start speaking again, but she was still very quiet, and kept to herself most of the time.

Sunday was even worse. Around eight in the evening, Lorelai declared that she could neither stand the smell nor the atmosphere of the hospital anymore. Rory agreed and decided to go home to her own apartment for awhile. She hadn't been there for two days. Lorelai offered to give Emily and Suzannah a ride home to Hartford, because Emily had taken a taxi to get there in the morning. Her hands where very shaky these days _("It must be the terrible draught at the hospital_," she claimed) and she felt uncomfortable driving. To Lorelai's surprise her mother accepted the offer.

Suzannah was tired and fell asleep once they started driving. Lorelai wasn't feeling to energetic herself, and wasn't really all that interested in having a conversation, but Emily had a lot on her mind. _"Now, remember Lorelai, your father is going into surgery at one o' clock. Do you understand me?" _

"_One, that's when the tall pointer is straight up and the other is tipped over a little, right?" _Lorelai asked dryly.

"_This is not a joke, Lorelai!" _Emily said, irritated._" I expect you and Rory to be there, on time!"_

"_I'm going to see if I can switch shifts at the Inn, but Rory's not coming..." _Lorelai said while making a turn. Emily looked at her, obviously shocked, so Lorelai knew that she had to explain further.

"_Well, she asked if she should skip a class so that she could be there and I told her not to." _

"_Oh, so this is your idea, I should have known," _Emily said, indignant

"_Look, Mum, seriously, there's no reason why she should come, Dad's going to stay in surgery for hours, we won't know anything about how it went until tomorrow evening," _Lorelai tried to defend her decision.

"_I know that, but I also know that it would mean a lot for Richard to have her there. I'm taking Suzannah out of school so he can see her..." _Emily went on.

"_You know what, Mum, that's not for her good, that's all for you!" _Lorelai cut her mother off. Her tone was getting more aggressive now. _"Suzannah would be much more comfortable if she got to go to pre-school with her friends tomorrow, to an environment where she feels safe. She would be much happier if she could act as if it's a regular day..." _

"_But tomorrow is far from being a regular day!" _Emily interrupted_. "If Rory and Suzannah come to see Richard in the morning, it may very well be the last time they see him alive!" _Her voice was high-pitched and shaky.

"_Yes, and if Rory was there tomorrow, that would be exactly what she'd be thinking! And it would crush her! I want to spare my daughter of that_!" Lorelai yelled, but calmed herself when she realized she might wake up Suzannah. _"I know what my kid needs to know and to do, and what she doesn't!" _She continued in a lower voice as she drove up in front of her parents' house.

"_And you're saying I don't?" _Emily asked as she loosened her seatbelt and got out of the car. Then she turned and looked at Lorelai._ "I'm not going to try and protect her from reality, Lorelai. Not when it hits her as hard as this. And believe it or not, there's nothing you can do about it. I've said this to you before and now I'm saying it again: Suzannah is my child, not yours."_

Emily slammed the door and went to get her youngest daughter out of the backseatAs she went inside, Suzannah hanging over her shoulder, the girl woke up and sent a tired smile at her sister. Lorelai waved back before she backed out of the driveway.

When Emily had gotten Suzannah to bed a little later, she became very restless. She started wandering around in the big house, not knowing what to do. She wasn't feeling tired enough to go to bed, and she didn't feel like sitting down to read or watch TV. She tried pouring herself a drink to calm her down, but as it turned out, it only made her feel more energetic.

Finally, she grabbed the phone, brought her drink with her and sat down on the couch in the living-room. After having thought about it for a moment, she kicked her pumps off and pulled her feet onto the couch as well. Then she dialed the number of Richard's hospital room.

"Hello, this is Richard Gilmore speaking?" she heard his voice hissing. He sounded surprised that anyone had called him.

"_Richard, it's me..." _she answered

"Emily? Is something wrong?" 

"_No, Richard, no, there's nothing wrong." _She had to take a deep breath before she continued. _"Richard, I know you're supposed to be resting before your surgery tomorrow and I know I should let you go to sleep but... I was feeling so alone!" _she admitted, almost in tears.

"_Emily, don't worry. Ever since you girls left I've been feeling very lonely, too. Lying here, all alone with my thoughts...I'm glad you called!" _Richard assured her.

Emily was relieved._ "You know what?" _she asked_. "Tonight, I don't want to talk about cancer and hospitals and death...I think we need a break from all of this, don't you?" _

"_Absolutely!" _Richard agreed._ "What do you want to talk about?"_

Emily had to think for a few seconds before she answered. _"Let's pretend, you're not ill. Let's pretend you're not in hospital." _

"_All right..." _Richard waited for his wife to explain further.

"_Let's pretend you're on one of your usual business trips, and that this is one of our usual nine o'clock phone calls. Let's act normal. I think I need to get away from reality for a little while tonight..." _

"_I see what you mean." _Richard cleared his throat as if he was taking on a new character. _"So, how was your day, dear?"_

Two other people were also feeling lonely that night, Rory, and Lorelai. Luckily Rory got a call from Logan not long after she got home, and she stayed on the phone with him until his phone bill was the size of a small European country's national budget.

Unfortunately Lorelai couldn't reach Rory because of this. Instead, she decided to call Chris, who was supposed to be back from his trip the same morning.

She only heard about half a beep before he picked up.

"_Hey...it's me," _she said, glad to hear the voice of another human being.

"_Hey Lor! I've missed you. Just got back a few hours ago, it's been kind of crazy around here, or else I would have called. See, GG got all worked up and..."_

"_Chris..." _Lorelai wasn't in the mood to hear about GG or Chris's mother or anything else that wouldn't make her feel better right now. _"Chris, listen...I'm...I'm having a tough night. You know, my father is really ill, and..." _

"_Yeah, Rory, texted me, saying he was going to have some kind of surgery or anything like that? Sorry to hear that. How is he doing?" _Christopher asked.

Lorelai had to bite her lip, and she blinked away a tear before she could answer. _"He might not make it...Oh Chris I'm so scared!" _She couldn't stop a few tears from escaping her eyes.

"_And it's not just that," _she continued. _"I had to promise him if he... passes away, that I'd stop getting into conflicts with my mother all the time, for the sake of the family._" She took a break to sniffle_ "Well, guess what, he hasn't even had the surgery yet and I managed to break that promise already!" _At this point it wasn't just a few tears anymore, Lorelai was weeping bitterly.

"_Oh, Lor, don't cry!" _Chris tried to calm her down. _"Come on, I'm sure your dad will be back on his feet in no time, don't worry about it."_

"_That's easy for you to say! Remember when your father was ill, right before he died? It wouldn't have done any good if we had told you not to worry about it then, huh?" _Lorelai was getting upset.

"_OK, I admit that was awful. But I managed to get through it, thanks to you. And I'm going to help you to get through this, Lor, I owe it to you," _he said in a comforting voice that made Lorelai hope he knew a way of making things seem a little less hopeless.

"_What do you say, I come and pick you up, and take you to a bar somewhere? We'll get really hammered, and you'll forget about all of it?" _Christopher suggested.

Lorelai was shocked by what he was saying.

"_Chris, you know I can't do that! Didn't you hear me when I said my Dad is going to have surgery tomorrow? I have to be at the hospital in the morning and..." _

"_You don't HAVE TO do anything, Lor! They can't make you sit around there and feel terrible about yourself" _Chirs interrupted._ "Listen to me, Lor, your parents have been as terrible to you as mine have been to me over the years. You don't owe them anything." _He took a deep breath before he asked again_. "I'll come and pick you up, all right?"_

"_You know what, Chris?" _Lorelai brushed away a few tears with the back of her hand._ "I get why you and I were such a hot couple in high school. If you had said something like this to me back then, I'd be all over you in a second." _She changed position on the couch before she continued. _"But Chris, I've grown up since then, I'm not at that place anymore. But obviously, you still are." _

She took a break and waited for him to say something, but he didn't. She could hear him breathing at the other end, but he didn't say a word. Lorelai had to pull herself together before she could open her mouth again. _"I guess we shouldn't bother taking this any further...There's no point in it. Bye, Christopher." _She hung up, tossed the phone onto the table andpulled her feet onto? the couch, so she could lean on her knees. _"One broken promise, and now one of the reasons why Dad said he was proud of me, out of the window, both in one day," _she thought to herself, as she cried, louder and more desperately than before.

When Emily and Richard hung up on each other later that night, Emily noticed that she had gotten a new text message. It contained only one rather short sentence, but to Emily it said more than a thousand words.

_I texted Rory that it would be good if she could come to the hospital tomorrow morning. Lorelai._


	4. And the hits just keep on coming

**And the hits just keep on coming...**

The next morning, faith would have it that all four Gilmore girls arrived at the hospital at the exact same time, and headed towards Richard's room. Halfway down the corridor, a nurse came running towards them. _"Mrs. Gilmore?" _she called out, looking at Emily who immidiately stopped.

"_Yes?" _she confirmed in a nervous voice as the nurse came up to her.

"_Mrs. Gilmore, I'm sorry to tell you that your husband's situation was aggravated this morning. The doctors decided to accelerate the surgery. Mr.Gilmore is being taken to the O.R as we speak, I was just about to go and call you..."_

Emily paled in an instant. Lorelai and Rory looked at each other, both hoping that the other one would come up with a calming, dauntless smile. Instead, they were just staring into the other's apprehensive eyes. Suzannah tugged at her mother's coat, asking again and again _"What does that mean, Mum? Mummy, what does that mean?" _When her mother didn't answer her, she turned to Rory instead and repeated the same question. Rory was too shocked to answer her as well, but she lifted Suzannah up to make her stop.

Finally Emily managed to gather her thoughts enough and was able to speak. _"So__ is he worse, is it that what you're saying?" _she asked.

"_Well..." _the nurse began, but Emily cut her off right away

"_How could he be worse all of a sudden? What is wrong with him?" _she asked upset.

"_It seems like we overlooked something," _the nurse admitted. "_That's the only explanation the doctors have at the moment. Hopefully removing the infected lung will let him breathe esaier. Then we can determine if there is any other damage." _She looked at them all in a sympathetic way. _"I'm sorry that I can't give you any more information at the moment," _she said. _"He will probably stay in surgery throughout most of the day, so if you want __to, you can go home and wait for our call."_

Of course, no one wanted to leave. Although they were all sick and tired of the hospital corridors, there was something satisfying about sitting in awful plastic chairs, staring at the white walls and drinking the vending machine coffee... It felt as if they were contributing to Richard's healing just by suffering through being there and waiting for him to come out of surgery.

It was while sitting like this that Lorelai told Rory about her and Christopher's break-up. She calmly and undramaticly explained that the two of them had discovered that they were too different to be together, but said that there were few, if any, hard feelings. _"I hate to spring this on you right now, babe. I just thought you needed to know right away." _Her daugther's reply shocked her quite a bit though.

"_To be honest, Mum, I knew it had to happen. I'm just glad you got out of it in one piece, and that I can still be speaking to both of you," _Rory declared, without explaining further, before she got up and went to get more coffee.

Two floors above them, in the hospital cafeteria, Emily tried to get her youngest daughter to eat some soup. Suzannah didn't have much appetite these days.

"_Come on, take another spoon!" _her mother demanded. _"I've told you we're not leaving this table until you've finished that bowl."_ Suzannah unwillingly took a mouthful while studying her mother's face.

"_Mum, you don't look good," _she declared.

"_That's not a very polite thing to say," _Emily told her, while leaning over the table to wipe her daughter's chin with a napkin.

"_I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that you don't look happy," _the girl explained. _"It's because you're worried about Dad, isn't it?" _

Emily sighed deeply. _"Yes, Suzannah. I worry about your father all the time," _she admitted. _"I really do," _she added and got an absent look.

"_Mum?" _her daughter put her spoon down next to her plate. _"The disease...Is it bad? Can Dad die from it?" _Emily had to cover her eyes with one hand for a few seconds before she could answer.

"_You know that the doctors are doing their best to make your dad better, I've told you..." she tried to calm her daughter._

"_But he could still die?" _her daughter's voice was trembling as she repeated her question. Emily took a deep breath before she answered.

"_I wish I could say "no", angel but I can't." _She felt tears coming to her eyes and hid her face in her hands once more. Suzannah got up, walked around the table and climbed onto her mother's lap.

"_I'm sure the doctors are going to help him," _she said in a comforting manner before she leaned towards her mother's chest and cried silently.

Not until nine in the evening, when Suzannah had fallen asleep on Emily's lap a long time ago and Rory was just about to doze off with her head on Lorelai's shoulder, did the doctors have any new information for them. Just as Emily checked her watch at 09.02, one of the surgeons, the one who had talked to Lorelai the first day at the hospital, came down the hallway towards them. She pulled out a chair from the row by the wall and sat down facing them.

"_I have both good and bad news for you," _she began. Rory sat back up in her chair, expecting the worst already. On look at the other two was enough to tell her they felt the same way._"The good news is that we had no trouble getting the infected lung out. The bad news is that the other lung isn't functioning as good now as it did when we ran the tests..."_ A silence occured until Emily's trembling voice broke it.

"_What does that mean?"_

"_It means that Richard needs a respirator to breathe. But it can only maintain his lungfunctons for a certain amount of time," _the doctor explained and sought eye-contact with each of them before she continued. _"He is going to need a lung-transplant."_

"_I'll give him a lung!" _Rory quickly offered. Lorelai looked at her daugther with both shock and admiration, and wished that she could have been able to offer a sacrifice like that without thinking about it first. The doctor smiled at Rory.

"_That is a nice thing of you to offer, but firstly, your lungs would be far too small to fit your grandfather, and secondly, we are going to need both lungs from a deceased donor."_

"_Isn't that like...hard to get?" _Lorelai felt like she should be asking medical questions in this situatuation, but couldn't think of a better one. The doctor nodded

"_We've put his name on the list, but at his age...The lung would have to be a perfect match in order for him to be prioritized."_

Lorelai, Rory and Emily looked at each other. They had been getting so much bad news lately that they weren't sure how to react anymore, when something new came along. Rory hid her face in her hands while Lorelai, who was sitting inbetween the other two, put her arm around her and pulled her close to herself. She hesitated for a second, not longer, before she put her other hand on her mother's shoulder. Emily shifted the weight of the sleeping child from her right arm to the left, and cleared her throat.

"_I don't suppose a generous donation to the hospital would put his name higher up on the list?" _she asked. The doctor shook her head.

"_No. I'm sorry, Mrs. Gilmore, but that's all based on our medical estimations..." _

"_It thought so," _Emily admitted. _"But I had to ask..." _

"_So, what do we do now? Is there anything we can do at all?" _Lorelai asked.

"_Now , we hope for the best. There's not much else to do, I'm afraid," _the doctor answered with a sympathetic, sad smile.


	5. Rain

_Rain_

Rain… The drops make a noise as they hit the roof. Sitting on her bed with a laptop (pertinent enough,) placed on her lap, trying to study, while her thoughts are taking her out of her room, out of her appartment, to somewhere else. Her thoughts bring her to a hospital room where she has been spending so much time lately. Ironically, every time she is there, she just wants to leave. It's scares her to see the man she is so fond of and looks so much up to, lying there so helpless and palsied. But then again, everytime she leaves, she just wants to go back. She can't concentrate on anything else, she can't go on doing the things she has done before…

Irritated, she slams the laptop closed, and puts it away. She lies down on the bed and closes her eyes so she can sleep, just to let a few more hours pass. If it weren't for that damn racket on the roof.

-

Rain… She's sitting on the window sill in her room and staring at the water falling from the sky. She wonders if there's anyone crying up there. She's in her white nightgown, the one with the laces, that her mother likes so much. She knows she is supposed to be in bed now, she knows she would be in trouble if her mother or the maid came in and found her sitting here looking at the rain… But now that everything in her life is so different from the way it usually is, she doesn't like going to bed at night anymore. She has never been scared of the dark before, but now… There's something about the shadows on the walls, they're more threatening than usual. And then there's the sound of the rain hitting the balcony outside her window, it sometimes sounds like a flock of wild horses ready to come running over her.

So instead, she is sitting on the window sill, looking at the rain…Maybe it's raining at the hospital too? And in Stars Hollow?

-

Rain… Blah, she hates rain! She slams the door behind her, she was planning to go outside, but now she can't because of the rain. She really hates rain. She hates everything today, she is not in a very good mood. She hasn't been for a very long time. Tonight, she had been planning to sit out on the porch, to watch the moonlight and tuck herself in a blanket, but then that stupid rain started showering down all over town…There go her plans of her nice quiet evening, of trying not to think about what's going on in her life at the moment. The promises she has broken already, the expectations she hasn't been able to live up to…it's eating her up inside, piece by piece.

And that rain… She doesn't really know why, but just the thought of rain makes her sad today.

-

Rain... Standing in her living room, she's sipping a cup of tea. She's in her robe, she has been ready to go to bed for so long now, but the empty half of the bed makes her feel so lonely. So instead, she has been standing here by the window, drinking cup after cup of tea.

Her current cup is now empty. As she looks down into it, she remembers something she learned as a child, something about telling fortune from the residues of an empty teacup. How did that rhyme go again? _"Look into your cup of tea, if a tear is what you see, then a widow you will be..." _She quickly places a hand over the cup as the words come back to her, all of a sudden she doesn't want to look at it anymore.

In a years time, when she goes out to social events, will that be what they'll call her? _"Who's that, over there?" "That's Richard Gilmore's widow, don't you remember?"_

Oh, that rain! A few drops of it seem to have found its way to her eyes and her cheeks. She quickly brushes them away as she starts walking towards the stairs, putting the cup down on the table as she passes it. She walks up the stairs very slowly, step by step without skipping any, to delay the lonelyness in the bedroom for as long as possible. Before entering her own room, she peeks into the room next to it. In there she finds her daugther sitting on the window sill, fast asleep. With a smile on her face she carries the little girl to her own room. Now neither of them has to be alone.

-

Rain... He can't see it but he can hear the water drops hitting the window on the other side of the room. He can remember Lorelai as a little girl, crying because the rain came and washed away her precious snow. He can't stand it when any of his girls are crying, he hopes that they somehow manage to remain happy tonight. He's alone tonight...there was no one there when he woke up after having rested, for a few hours. All of his girls probably needed to go home and get some sleep. Not that he minds. With this big tube he has in his throat, he can't communicate very well with them anyhow. Everytime Rory shares something she has read, or Suzannah tells him about school, or Lorelai talks about something in her life, or Emily just looks as if she needs him to comfort her, all of those times, he feels an enourmous need to respond. Sometimes it's a bit of a relief when they leave, at least then he doesn't feel tempted to talk for a while. But then again, after some time, he feels lonely without them...maybe he does mind a little bit that they went home...

The rain drops keep hitting on the window...


	6. To care for each other

__

_**Second last chapter... Those of you who are not interessted in LL, bear over with it. :-)

* * *

**_

_**To care for each other**_

It was late evening. Rory was getting tired, and rested her head on her grandfather's bedside. Allthough he couldn'talk to her these days, she liked sitting by his bed like this, holding his hand. Emily was sitting by his other side. It warmed her heart to see Rory so peaceful for once, in this difficult time. Tonight, Emily and Rory were alone with Richard at the hospital, while Lorelai had brought Suzannah with her to Stars Hollow.

Just as Rory was about to doze off, Richard's hand started twisting out of hers. When she looked up, she saw that he was shaking, as if he was having an infarction.

"_Grandma, look!" _she called out, terrified, but there was no need. Emily had already pushed the emergency button on the wall. Two seconds later, hospital staff came storming through the door.

At the same time in Stars Hollow, Lorelai had put her sister down to sleep in Rory's bed, and was planning to go to the kitchen to get something to eat. Unfortunately, the fridge was empty and she remembered she hadn't had the time to go shopping for several days. Disappointed, she drank a glass of water before she got herself ready for bed . She was brushing her teeth when the phone rang.

"_Complications... a deterioration in his state... your mother and your daughter asked us to call you... you must come as soon as possible..." _the information was all blurry, it was being repeated over and over in her head, making her all dizzy. For a minute or two she was simply standing by the phone, being unable to move.

Then she pulled herself together, found her purse and a jacket, and a blanket to tuck Suzy in, so she wouldn't be cold in the car. She hated the thought of waking her sister up to drag her to the hospital yet another time. It was like waking her up to a nightmare. But then again she couldn't just leave her alone in the house either.

Just as she was about to go into the room where Suzannah was sleeping, she heard a knock on the door. When she opened it she was surprised to see Luke outside. _"Hey...sorry to be dropping by so late, I just...I figured you hadn't had much time to shop lately so I brought you some food..."_ he said as he held up two big paper bags. She didn't know what to answer, she was so happy that he had thought of her and cared for her, right now she really needed someone to care for her, instead of her caring about everyone else.

"_Thank you..." _she managed to get out.

He noticed that everything wasn't the way it was supposed to be. _"Did something happen?" _he asked her. Then it all came pourring out, she told him everything, about the phone call from the hospital and Suzy who was in bed and how stressed she was... He placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her still. _"Calm down!" _he demanded._"You get in the car and go to the hospital, I'll stay here and take care of Suzannah." _

"_Are you sure that's alright?" _she asked as he helped her to put on her jacket.

"_Yeah, yeah, she knows me, she likes me, it's going to be alright. Now, get going!"_ He nearly pushed her out the door, and waved at her as she drove away.

Emily couldn't understand what was taking Lorelai so long. She felt as if she had been waiting for hours when she finally saw her daugther coming towards her up the corridor. All alone.

"_Where is Suzannah?" _she asked as Lorelai got close enough to hear her.

"_She's fine, Mum, I got her a great baby-sitter. She's been taken care of," _Lorelaianswered. Emily wanted to ask more questions but decided they could wait. _"Now, where's my kid?" _Lorelai wondered. Emily answered by pointing towards one of the chairs that was lined up by the wall. Rory had curled up in one of them, and was fast asleep with Emily's coat covering her. _"Poor thing, she was exhausted," _Emily mumbled.

"_So, what's the news with Dad?" _Lorelai asked her mother. Emily started fumbling with her necklace as she answered.

"_I don't know yet. He had some kind of paroxysm and they rolled him away, so I don't really know what is happening. Nobody wants to give me any information either. I've stopped every nurse that came by, but nothing!" _Emily said with a gloomy hand gesture. _"Or, well, they told me it wasn't life-threatening, that things like this are rather normal concerning his condition. That's something, I suppose."_

"_Yeah..."_ Lorelai agreed as they both sat down. _"These lungs aren't going to last him long, are they?" _

Emily shook her head as she wiped away a tear. _"They told me to expect him to keep having these attacks until they find him a new set of lungs." _

Lorelai looked at her mother. _"How much longer can he wait? Did they say anything about that?" _she asked in a very low voice. Emily hestiated before she answered.

"_They didn't want to promise anything. But one of the doctors said he recons only a few weeks..."_

Lorelai put her hand on her mother's shoulder as Emily hid her face in her hands. None of them said anything for a while.

There was a TV hanging on a rack up at the ceiling in the corner of the corridor. A news reporter was speaking of an accident at Bradley Airport. Appearantly a plane had rolled of the airstrip as it was about to take off, and a certain number of people were wounded. Five were dead.

Emily wiped off her face with a tissue from her purse, and concentrated on the TV-screen. _"That's interessting..." _she mumbled.

"_You're thinking about how one of those people might be a perfect donor, aren't you?" _Lorelai said in a dejected manner. "_Mum, you're unbeliveable!" _

"_You never would have guessed it if you weren't thinking about it yourself..." _Emily claimed, and Lorelai had to admit that she was right. She did, of course, not say that out loud.

Just then, the sound of a door being opened made them both turn. A doctor, a new one this time, came walking towards them while pulling off his latex gloves. _"Are you Richard Gilmore's family?" _he asked as he came closer.

* * *

**_Final chapter will be up soon_**


	7. Epilogue

**_So, here's the last chapter:_**

* * *

And that was the end...

Suzannah had been to the graveyard before. She had put down flowers on her grandfather and grandmother's grave. She had never met either of them, her grandfather died when Lorelai was little, and Gran, as Richard's mother had been called, died a few years before Suzannah was born. But even so her father had taken her to put flowers on their grave on several occasions.

But now she was putting down flowers on another grave. The tombstone was big, black and brand new. Its greatness scared her a little, so she hurried to put down the bouquet her mother had put together, before she ran back to the others, who were standing a few steps behind her.

Emily picked her up and placed her on her hip as she came running. _"Well done, angel," _she praised her youngest daugther.

"_Yeah, that looks nice..." _Lorelai agreed. She had her arm around Rory, who was crying a little.

"_This place makes me really sad..."_ Rory told them as she found a handkerchief in her pocket.

"_I suppose we can leave now,"_ Emily concluded.

They turned and started walking back up the path to the parking lot.

"_It seems so unfair that he had to die that way..."_ Lorelai said.

Rory nodded. _"Yes it does, doesn't it?" _

Emily agreed. _"He was a good man, we can all agree on that."_ They walked in silence for a while.

"_So, Friday night dinner as usual again tomorrow, then?" _Lorelai asked.

Emily nodded. _"At 6.45." _By now they had reached the gate of the yard, and Emily put Suzannah down. The girl ran over to the car and opened the door to the back seat.

"_Daddy!" _she exclaimed as she sat down next to Richard, who was waiting for them. _"I put down the flowers, and they were really pretty!" _

"_That's wonderful, sweetheart," _Richard said as the others came into the car. Rory sat in the back and Emily and Lorelai in the front seat. _"I just wish I could have gone down there to see it myself..." _

"_Oh no, you!" _Emily cut him off quickly. _"The doctor was very strict with his instructions. He told you, we could only take you out for a few hours and only if you stayed inside the whole time! You've been through massive surgery, you have to remember that!" _

"_Yes dear, I suppose you are right..." _Richard gave in.

As Emily hit the gas pedal, Rory leaned on her grandfather's shoulder. _"It's OK, Grandpa, thanks to the man in that grave, you'll be able to go anywhere you want again soon. We can come back and put more flowers on his grave then." _Richard smiled at her.

"_I'll be looking forward to that."_

A little later they pulled up in front of the Gilmore mansion. Emily took Suzannah by her left hand and went to unlock the door. Lorelai gave Rory the keys to her car and told her to warm it up, as it had been a very cold day. Then she went around the car to support her father towards the front door. _"Thank you, Lorelai..." _he said as she allowed him to place some of his weight on her.

"_No, Dad, thank you," _she said. Her father looked at her in a questioning way, so she continued. "_For letting me wait a little longer before I have to grow up and have to start keeping promises..." _she said, shyly, but with a smile on her face. Richard chuckled as they went inside.

* * *

**_That's it! I hope you liked it. Thanks to both VoyICJ and_ _lilienprizessin for correcting :) ._**


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